“You have my word on it!”
Trust the science! Believe the science! Science is always right!
Formal scientific papers: in 2000, out of many thousands of papers, only 40 had to be retracted. Two years later, in 2022, 5,000 papers had to be retracted (https://thenationalpulse.com/2023/08/10/trust-the-science-study-retractions-up-13650-in-22-years/). A watchdog group estimates that “with more thorough vetting,” as many as 100 thousand (!) papers would have to be retracted.
The watchdogs said 80% of the retractions are not due to “honest error,” but to–well, what we used to call “lying.” For money, fame, and power over other people.
Would you buy a used car from Big Science?
Science, yeah Science!! Fauci says he is science. That should be enough.
More than enough. As Roberto Duran once said, “No mas! No mas!”
When I was serving on COAM (Committee on Academic Misconduct – aka cheating, plagiarism, faked lab reports, ringers taking exams, etc.), we noticed that among the Top Five of our “customers,” i.e., departments or programs sending us cases, was one of the hard sciences. In the interest of confidentiality, I won’t say which one.
At the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith where I have earned two degrees, if you are caught cheating you are expelled. Cheating is easy, learning the material presented is work. They say extended strong concentration burns calories the same as if you were doing physical exercise. More than 100,000 chemical reactions go on in the brain every second.
Gee, with all the writing I do, I ought to look like Steve Reeves.
What astounds me is that taking the high road in any pursuit seems to have become quite unfashionable. When no one has any ethics, cheating becomes an efficient method of operation. I suspect that we are seeing only the tip of the iceberg.